IF YOU GO

GOLIAD - Jim McDonald sits atop a barstool at the Commercial Street Bar in Goliad, the best seat in the house for viewing the large, flat-screen television hanging over the bar.

Other customers lounge on couches to listen to the music, or they stand around tall tables to chat. Ladies' purses carefully hang on hooks under the bar instead of sitting on the floor.

The groups talk about the work day, their kids or the game on the television, but the conversation typically comes back to one subject - Goliad needed this.

"Used to, you just went home because there was no place to go. The city rolled up the streets at 6 o'clock, and everything locked up," said McDonald as he sipped his beer.

The upscale wine and beer bar opened July 5 by first-time business owners Reagan and Mary Margaret Sahadi.

Mary Margaret Sahadi, who grew up in Goliad, works in Corpus Christi as a doctor. Reagan Sahadi is a lawyer and the municipal court judge for the city of Goliad.

The couple bought the old downtown building in June 2012, intending to rent out the space to another business.

They never thought they would open a bar.

"But we weren't able to rent it, and we thought - What are we going to do with the space? And we came up with a beer and wine bar, somewhere we could go while we were here," she said.

It is a niche that Goliad didn't have, she said. The town has a bar, Glenn's Pub and Sports Bar, but the Sahadis wanted to focus on something different, something a little more "Texas chic."

"It is velvet curtains and cowhide rugs. That is basically the theme we were going for," Reagan Sahadi said. "We wanted high end, but something that wasn't so over the top that we would shoot ourselves in the foot."

Laura Parker, a Goliad resident who came to the bar for the first time last week, said the Sahadis have achieved their goal.

"It is almost like you aren't in Goliad, like you stepped out into Austin," she said. "It is different. It is just not your basic bar scene. There are bars everywhere, but that is not what this is. It is comfortable, relaxing."

The accidental bar owners even became accidental bartenders, working behind the bar some weekends.

"The ultimate goal is when someone walks in here is that they think, 'Wow, this place really is cool. But you know what else? It is clean. And whoever owns this place is paying attention to detail. They must have a lot of pride in their business,' Because we do," Reagan Sahadi said.